1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to the field of network data processing systems. More particularly, the invention relates to an improved architecture and method for managing quantity tiers using attributes in an online stationery design system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Web-based systems for designing stationery such as wedding invitations, birth announcements, birthday party invitations, etc, are currently available over the Internet. As illustrated in FIG. 1, in current Web-based systems, a template designer 110 creates a static design template 120 for each type of stationery. The static design template 120 includes a plurality of text box regions 121, 122, 124 representing locations where text is to be displayed and potentially one or more image regions 124 representation locations where images uploaded by the user are to be displayed.
The static design template 120 is personalized via a Web-based user interface 130 made accessible to end users 111 over the Internet. The Web-based interface typically takes the form of a Web page which is downloaded to a client computer of the end user 111. The Web page includes a plurality of text entry fields 131, 132, 134 which correspond to the text box regions 121, 122, 124 within the design template, respectively. The Web page may also include one or more image entry fields 133 corresponding to the image regions 123 of the static design template 120. Images may be uploaded to the image entry field 133 and positioned within the image region 123 of the design template 120.
Some Web-based systems for designing stationery provide tiered pricing structures in which the per-item cost for stationery is reduced for larger purchases. By way of example, under a tiered pricing structure, an order of between 25 and 49 birthday announcements may cost $5.00 per announcement (assuming a minimum order of 25); an order of between 50 and 74 birthday announcements may cost $3.75 per announcement; an order of between 75 and 99 birthday announcements may cost $3.30 per announcement; and an order of 100 or more birthday announcements may cost $3.00 per announcement.
One problem with the pricing structures used on current Web-based stationery systems, however, is that they are hard-coded for each individual stationery product and, consequently, do not scale well for a large number of stationery products. For example, as illustrated in FIG. 2, pricing structure 231 is associated with stationery product 221; pricing structure 232 is associated with stationery products 222 and 223; and pricing structure 233 is associated with stationery product 223. Thus, when a new stationery product is created, either an existing pricing structure is manually identified and associated with the new stationery product, or a new pricing structure is manually created. Identifying an appropriate pricing structure based on a manual comparison of similar stationery products, and/or manually creating a new pricing structure for each new stationery product consumes a significant amount of time and may result in inconsistencies between pricing structures for similar stationery types.
Accordingly, what is needed is an improved system for designing and generating online stationery. What is also needed is an improved system and method for selecting a pricing schedule for online stationery products.